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THE EXAMS POINT / RESOURCE CENTRE

Different exams.
One place to begin.

Choose an exam and explore concepts through visual explanations, topic maps and revision checks. Open the full chapter notes whenever you need more detail.

THE VISUAL LEARNING STUDIO

See the idea. Understand the connection.

35 visual explanations across 29 chapters, with topic maps throughout the library.

Choose your examination

Study the expanded notes and the credited detailed textbook lessons. The current chapter index covers core topics; it is not a claim of exhaustive coverage of every examination syllabus. Check the official syllabus and primary references.

Speed, Time and Distance — lesson overview

The basic relationship

For uniform speed, distance=speed×time. Average speed is total distance divided by total time across the complete journey.

Convert units before calculating: 1 km h⁻¹ = 5/18 m s⁻¹ and 1 m s⁻¹ = 18/5 km h⁻¹.

A speed is not automatically an average velocity; direction and displacement are separate concerns.

Average speed example

For equal distances at speeds u and v, the average speed is 2uv/(u+v), not generally the arithmetic mean.

Travelling 60 km at 30 km/h takes two hours; returning 60 km at 60 km/h takes one hour. Average speed=120/3=40 km/h.

The arithmetic mean of speeds applies to equal time intervals, not automatically equal distances.

Relative motion

For two objects moving along one line in the same direction, their relative speed magnitude is the difference of speeds; in opposite directions it is the sum.

Crossing problems require the total distance to be covered, including train lengths or platform length where relevant.

Boats-and-stream problems combine a boat’s speed relative to water with the stream’s speed under the assumed straight-line steady-flow model.